John Denver event kicks off in Aspen

ASPEN – A string of performances commemorating the 15th anniversary of the death of John Denver opens with a new event, “John Denver: Stories and Songs,” Thursday at Aspen’s Wheeler Opera House.

Denver, who moved to the Roaring Fork Valley in the late 1960s and celebrated the Aspen area in such songs as “Rocky Mountain High” and “Starwood in Aspen,” died in October 1997 when the plane he was piloting crashed into California’s Monterey Bay.

The same cast of musicians will return for a pair of John Denver tribute concerts on Friday and Saturday at the Wheeler. Colorado singer John Adams will perform his own concert of Denver songs on Sunday at the Wheeler.